Originally Posted by peggster
A few members in particular seem to act as the FT police, telling newbies to search or not ask such inane questions.
I've noticed folks do exactly what you've just pointed out, so I can see why it might scare people off. It seems so much easier to just answer the questions than criticize the poster for not doing a search. About a year back I had a discussion with some folks on the AA forum, asking them to consider posting a link to the answer, versus "do a search". It's met with mixed success.
I would encourage you to answer questions that newbies post that you might have the answers to. That's an easy way to break the ice and get some posts to your credit.